Mashed Potato Pie

One of my favorite things to prepare is a Mashed Potato Pie. You can prepare such a pie with any and every ingredient that comes to mind, however my recipe is my mother's old recipe kicked up and her recipe is a spin off the traditional shepards pie, also called cottage pie. The traditional shepards pie used cubed lamb and was eaten and prepared by peasants in the 17th century.

My mother used to use all canned veggies and I use fresh organic veggies plus add a couple things here and there like garlic, cream and truffle salt. This recipe takes 20 min to cook however tastes as if it's been cooking all day long - it's more of a stew that eats like a meal, very hearty and comforting. I love this dish and hope you will too :)

Mashed Potato Pie

I use red potatoes (unpeeled) boiled in salted water
when potatoes are fork tender, smash potatoes with butter and cream. I add fresh ground black pepper and truffle salt. Set aside.

Filling: heat olive oil in skillet - add 1 whole chopped onion, 4 carrots diced and 3 cloves of minced garlic, add 1 diced poblano pepper, season. Add ground sirloin (I used natural grass-fed beef from the local farmer's market) crumble into hot skillet and add worcestershire sauce (about 4 dashes) and fresh rosemary (about a teaspoon) add 4 chopped tomatoes, 1 cup of fresh chopped spinach and 2 cups of fresh or frozen corn. Add 2 teaspoons of flour and cook, then a tablespoon of tomato paste and 1/4 cup of water and simmer. Once the filling is done cooking, add heavy cream and stir.

Place filling at the bottom of a baking dish, and top with mashed potatoes - add olive oil and bake until brown and bubbly in a 350 degree oven. I hope you enjoy as much as my family and I.

Picadillo for dad

Picadillo is very common where I'm from - I grew up eating different versions of it, but always containing ground meat. Usually Picadillo is prepared using sofrito, which is a base of spices, and root aromatics such as garlic and onions mixed with tomatoes or a tomato sauce. Chose any veggies to add to your meat mixture - most recipes I know use potatoes.

First - choose a nice cut of meat - I used grass-fed sirloin from the local Farmer's Market.

Crumble the beef in a large heated skillet with olive oil - add salt and pepper. The way I cook my Picadillo is a little different, I place the meat on one side of the skillet and the veggies on the other, then when almost cooked I combine them.

on one side of the skillet add chopped potatoes, carrots, green pepper, onion and lots of minced garlic - skillet should be very hot and all ingredients should carmelize. Once the meat and veggie mixture is almost done cooking add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, 1/2 tablespoon of cumin and 1/4 teaspoon of good quality (spicy) chili powder. Cook and stir, and slowly add about 1/4 cup of water - cover and simmer for 5-10 min until fully incorporated, and add more salt/pepper to taste.

Serve Picadillo with tortillas, avocado, salsa, lettuce, tomato and rice/beans as a side dish.

Enjoy :)

Biscuts and gravy with farm fresh sausage and eggs

I used fresh organic sausage from the local market and organic eggs/onion


Ingredients for gravy:

flour
olive oil
butter
salt
pepper
water and milk
sausage
onion
sage leaf

sautee onion in olive oil - add 1/4 cup minced onion. once veggies are tender, slowly add flour - mix until flour is cooked out - slowly add milk and continue to cook until thickened. add salt, pepper, sage leaf and let simmer on very low heat - add water to think out. Pour over any type of biscuts - so delicious!!!

Macaroni and Cheese with truffle

My mother would not stop talking about this macaroni I prepared - she loved the topping and it was very simple!



I used shells for this dish - I like using pastas with grooves because I like the sauce to stick to the pasta, so anything with grooves works well!


Ingredients:
Pasta of choice (1 lb)
cheeses of choice - I used American, white cheddar swiss and fresh grated parmesan
olive oil, butter, garlic, onion, tomato, nutmeg, truffle salt, 4 slices of bread
milk and heavy cream

boil your pasta in salted water - set aside

step 1: sautee onion, garlic and tomato (1 small onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tomato in olive oil

next - make a roux! add more olive oil and flour to the veggies (about 2 tablespoons of flour and slowly add milk (about 1 cup) - keep stirring. If it's too thick, add more milk (slowly and keep stirring) now add the cheese - little by litte and keep stirring until it's incorporated. At this time, once the sauce is thickened I add about 1/4 cup heavy cream and stir well. I also add 3 tablespoons of butter - mix then add nutmeg and truffle salt and fresh ground black pepper (migh need more course salt) I only use 2 teaspoons of truffle salt. I pour the pasta into the sauce, mix and place into a baking dish. I top the pasta dish with bread crumbs. Toast 4 slices of bread - rub with fresh garlic, crumble place on top of pasta and drizzle with olive oil. bake (350 degrees for 20 min)

Carne Guisada and Rice

I apologize, but I am not prepared to share this recipe at the moment - but it is the most delicious carne guisada (using local grass-fed beef) from local farmer's market

But I will share ingredients:

good beef - trimmed and cubed
olive oil
flour
tomato paste
ground cumin, ground chili powder
onion, garlic, fresh tomato
water, salt/pepper to taste

of course I serve this dish with arroz, and tortillas! Salsa, avocado and salad a plus :) No beans are needed

Tofu vermicelli salad & spicy peanut sauce

This is an easy dish - I purhased some tofu noodles from the local market (produce section near the tofu). I rinced out the noodles, drained and put aside.

For this salad I used bean sprouts, red pepper,cucumber and spinach from local farmer's market

spicy peanut sauce:
hot chili oil, soy sauce, organic peanut butter - mix

I merely sauteed all ingredients in 1 very hot pan for 2 min - poured sauce over added peanuts and cucumber for garnish

Very healthy and delicious meal :)

Dips

Who doesn't enjoy dips; I'm crazy about them! I make homemade dips for parties, gatherings or Saturday afternoons for a great snack. I purchased some eggplant, onion, tomatoes, red pepper and jalapenos from the local farmer's market

Prepared Dips:
Babaghanoush
salsa
hummus

For the babaghanoush I used the eggplant - cut it up and roasted it in the oven with onion/garlic. Once it was tender - I blended the eggplant and garlic/onion together with olive oil, lime juice, sesame seed oil and fresh parsley -had it with flat bread and was so nutty and flavorful (salt/pepper to taste)

For the salsa I roasted onion, tomato, garlic, jalapenos and green pepper - once tender I blended it with fresh cilantro and lime juice (salt/pepper to taste) Just serve with tortilla chips of your choice.

Last but not least: hummus - used 1 can of chickpeas and 1/2 roasted red pepper. blended it with olive oil, lemon juice, sesame seed oil and salt/pepper served with Pita Chips!

Chili Cheese Enchiladas with New Mexico Chili

I have my gravy down packed and am happy to report that for the past 8-10 times I've made enchilada gravy, the sauce has come out impecable and uniformed. I do experiment using a variety of different chili powders - and recently made a gravy using ground new mexico red chilis - so good and spicy! I paired it with steamed red corn tortillas stuffed with 4 different cheeses :)

gravy ingredients:
olive oil
flour
tomato paste (for color)
1-2 tablespoons of chili powder (depending on heat)
onion
garlic
green pepper
cumin
salt/pepper to taste
water

First sautee your base veggies in olive oil until slightly tender, add 2-3 teaspoons of ground cumin (I cut my veggies very small - almosted minced). Next, make a roux!
I use olive oil and flour as my base - about 1/4 cup of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of flour. cook out flour
slowly add water a little at a time and continue to stir (do not stop stirring or you will get clumps). This will take about 7 min. Then add the chili powder (always first taste your chili powder for heat) keep stirring - then add about 1 tablespoon of tomato paste for a creamy sauce and bright color! Now it's time to season your sauce (to taste) using kosher salt and ground black pepper. Simmer for at least 15 min!

Of course if you'd like to add meat - go ahead and prepare your ground meat with the sauteed veggies - I like mine vegetarian style. Enjoy :)

Farmer's Veggie Fried Rice

One of my favorite things to eat is rice (any rice) I love preparing rice dishes and experimenting with different rices. I picked up some veggies from the local farmer's market

Ingredients:
Green Pepper, Onion, Butternut Squash, Green Beans, and eggs (all from the market) and of course rice and spices

Boil 1 cup of rice of choice and follow box directions (I used Basmati rice)

While rice is boiling - prep and begin cooking veggies. I used a small stove top wok and olive oil to sautee the veggies - cut them all in a uniform fashion so they may cook evenly.

Once the rice was prepared I added sauteed garlic and black prepared black bean sauce (1-2 tablespoons) then mixed. I then added the 1 egg to the sauteed veggies, and stired. Once the egg was cooked, I added the rice mixture and stirred everything together for a lovely veggie fried rice. To make vegan, omit the egg:) Very good, healthy and pocket book friendly :)

Stuffed roasted Zuchinni Flowers

Zuchinni Flowers from Farmer's Market https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Texas-Food-Revolution/224565997568092

We try and visit our local farmer's market every saturday for fresh produce and meats - I had picked up some lovely looking zuchinni flowers and although I wanted to deep fry them, I don't have much experience deep frying foods so I did not want to ruin these lovely veggies. Instead, I stuffed the flowers with tomatoes, arroz,onion, and squash. I got the baby tomatoes, onion and squash also at the market.

ingredients:
zuchinni flowers
onion, squash, tomato, prepared rice, olive oil

because I had leftover rice I decided to roast some squash, onion, and tomatoes to add to the rice - I stuffed the mixture within the blossoms, drizzled with olive oil, salt n pepper and baked in a 300 oven for about 20 min - served with fish!